Friday, January 16, 2015

Media Ignore Pope on Birth Control, 'Gay Marriage'

Pope Francis is the media's favorite Pope when journalists can find ways to twist his comments to suit their liberal narrative, but today when the Pope implored the flock in the Philippines to not abandon church teaching against artificial contraception, and as he warned against same-sex "marriage," he was largely ignored by the mainstream media.

"The family is also threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life."-- Pope Francis I 1/15/15

Speaking to one of Asia's fastest-growing populations, Pope Francis issued what is being described as his strongest defense yet of the Catholic Church's opposition to artificial contraception, urging that Philippine families be "sanctuaries of respect for life."

But the pope's message on birth control is likely to receive a less enthusiastic response than he might hope.

Although the Philippines has halved its birth rate since the 1970s (from six children per woman to three), its rate of population growth remains high compared to most of Asia.

Police said another 86,000 gathered outside one of Manila's biggest sports arenas, capacity 20,000, where Francis held his first encounter with the Filipino masses: a meeting with families.

. . . his comments were clearly a nod to the local church [in the Philippines], which recently lost a significant fight when President Benigno Aquino III pushed through a reproductive health law that allows the government to provide artificial birth control to the poor.

He then deviated from his prepared remarks to praise Pope Paul VI for having "courageously" resisted calls for an opening in church teaching on sexuality in the 1960s. Paul penned the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae" which enshrined the church's opposition to artificial birth control. [-- saying] Paul was prescient in resisting the trends of the times.

Francis also urged families to be on guard against what he called "ideological colonization," an apparent reference to gay marriage, which isn't legal in the Philippines. The church opposes gay marriage, holding that marriage is only between man and wife.

Appealing to the traditional values of Filipino Catholic families, Pope Francis made one of his strongest calls as pope against movements to recognize same-sex unions as marriage.

"The family is also threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage," the pope said Jan. 16, hours after warning that Philippine society was "tempted by confusing presentations of sexuality, marriage and the family."

"As you know, these realities are increasingly under attack from powerful forces which threaten to disfigure God's plan for creation and betray the very values which have inspired and shaped all that is best in your culture," he said.

Pope Francis made his remarks at a Mass in Manila's cathedral and then at a meeting with families in the city's Mall of Asia Arena.

Speaking of the threats he identified against the family, Francis said: "Every threat to the family is a threat to society itself." The pope also asked families to be "sanctuaries of respect for life, proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death."

Use of contraception in the Philippines is a contentious issue. While a new reproductive health law allowing contraceptive access was passed in 2012, it was not put into force until last April when the country's Supreme Court ruled that it was not unconstitutional.

Catholic opposition to the bill was so forceful that leaders of the Philippines bishops' conference at one point allegedly warned that president Benigno Aquino III could be excommunicated if he approved the law. The bishops, though, have denied such a threat.

Last year, the Philippine Supreme Court approved a landmark Reproductive Health Law, clearing the way for the government to start giving thousands of families access to contraception for the first time. The Roman Catholic Church fought the measure, but many rank-and-file Catholics supported it as a way to reduce the country’s high birthrate and reduce poverty.

Bicbic Chua, the executive director of Catholics for Reproductive Health, a group of progressive Catholics that spent years campaigning for the law, said she hoped Pope Francis would encourage Filipino bishops to tone down their opposition to groups that support access to contraception.

Father Joel Jason, dean of studies at the San Carlos Seminary Graduate School of Theology in Manila, said the pope wouldn’t tear up the church’s doctrine on artificial contraception, and denied the church was losing touch with its congregation.

The church under Pope Francis would continue to advocate “responsible parenthood via natural family planning,” or abstaining from sex on the most fertile days of a woman’s monthly cycle, instead of other methods, he said.